[Each week at ProfHacker, George Williams hosts "Open Thread Wednesday," a discussion forum in which readers are invited to share their answers to a particular question. The Commenting and Community Guidelines still apply.
You can suggest topics or ask us questions via email: ProfHackerCHE@gmail.com. —Ed.]
In a comment on Mark’s recent post about business cards, I happened to mention that I always keep a few on my office door so that people can take one with them if they come by and I’m not there. This got me thinking about ways in which we do (or don’t) use our office doors to share information that people need to know.
I’ve always put my semester schedule on my door—actually, we’re required to—and I also used to tape various flyers for student organizations as well as articles or images I thought were interesting. Then I began to think about my office door as a parallel version of the homepage for my Web site: I wouldn’t obscure the most important information on my homepage with potentially irrelevant (though perhaps interesting) stuff, so why should I do it on my office door? As a result, I’ve simplied things a great deal, as you can see in this photo.
How about you?
Clearly, the doors to our offices can provide valuable information to people when we’re not around. (Of course, not all of us can display our Twitter feed on the door like Jeff…) What does your office door look like (and why)? Let us know in this week’s open thread! And if you want to illustrate what you’re talking about, feel free to upload a pic and then share the link in a comment.
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11 Responses to Open Thread: What Does Your Office Door Look Like?
ethan_watrall - September 15, 2010 at 11:05 am
Right now, my office door (well, the door to one of my offices) has a big green lantern sticker (nerd cred!), a big CC sticker (open access cred!), and a Great Lakes THATCamp sticker (digital humanities community cred?)
george_h_williams - September 15, 2010 at 11:59 am
@ethan_watrall: Nice. How many people understand what those stickers mean? I would think there would be some overlap among comic nerds, open access advocates, and digital humanities community members, but I think the number of people who recognize any of those stickers might be fairly small. (I know it would be on my campus… alas.)
acavender - September 15, 2010 at 1:02 pm
Here’s what mine looks like (I also have my office hours and class schedule posted on a small bulletin board next to the door).The strips are my usual favorites: Bloom County, Calvin and Hobbes, Doonesbury, Sheldon, and PhD comics.@ethan_wattral I’d have recognized the CC and GL THATCamp stickers, but not the green lantern sticker. Apparently my education is lacking.
acavender - September 15, 2010 at 1:06 pm
Oh, and Frazz. How could I forget Frazz?
coalfire - September 15, 2010 at 1:28 pm
It is plastered solid with stickers from metal/punk/industrial bands circa 1980 on… Plus a magnet some students made for me years ago that says “Tattooed Intellectual.” :-)
flmontabon - September 15, 2010 at 4:30 pm
I work in our university’s College of Business. College policy forbids putting anything on our doors. I agree with the policy as this gives our space a more professional appearance, which is appropriate for a business school. Also, we have very nice wood doors and covering them up in comic strips would look tacky. I would understand, however, someone describing the faculty office hallways as antispetic.
meganmccullen - September 16, 2010 at 12:28 am
my office has the great fortune to have a small bulletin board next to the door, and a whole wall of bulletin board inside the office, so the door is currently blank. I have an anti-fem archaeologist quote by Ivor Noel Hume about ‘high heels and low decolletage are a lethal combination’ that needs to go up there, and anticipate some campus events will get posted on it eventually. The small bulletin board next to it has my office hours, some postcards of artifacts, a far side cartoon (‘its a mammoth’), and two recent NYTimes articles about anthropological topics on it. The Toothpastefordinner comics are posted inside the office, only for those who dare to tread.
kfoxt11 - September 16, 2010 at 9:54 am
I like a ‘messy’/collage-like office door; says something about the person behind the door.My current office is wooden, but also has a glass window; all of the faculty office in my department have that. And everyone has something to cover the window portion. I’m using an old poster from a cable TV series that includes lots of unique photographs.
kevingannon - September 16, 2010 at 11:05 am
My door is festooned with pictures, cartoons, a few thought-provoking snippets/quotes, and some silly stuff (“Haikus written by Cats” is my favorite). It’s pretty eclectic, but I have often opened my door to find students standing there reading the stuff while waiting for other faculty. At least I’ve made my hall interesting.I do think it’s crucial, though, to have the important materials–office hours, contact info., etc.–in a clearly visible place, so those are posted on the wall right next to my door, where my nameplate is. I also have a dry-erase board for students to leave a message, and some of my business cards available.But overall, I cultivate an eclectic, slightly off-kilter aesthetic for my door.
matt_l - September 16, 2010 at 12:00 pm
My office door has a rather bad signal to noise ratio today. The useful information includes my office hours and a seperate work wee schedule for the semester listing office hours, classes, times set aside for meetings and writing. The partially useful information includes a poem by Tom Waymann, “Did I miss anythnig,” about missing class. (I think I got the link from Prof Hacker…)The rest of the door is covered with things I find amusing, or ideas I need reminding of: An old cartoon from Lingua Franca about why Jean Paul Sartre drives a Dodge Dartre; a picture of a Banksy Mural; cartoons about the 1683 siege of vienna and the invention of the bagle; etc
jmcclurken - September 18, 2010 at 5:32 pm
Other than my Twitter feed setup that George mentioned above, my door is pretty boring. My schedule, a review of my book, and flyers for upcoming events I think are important. My one nod to humor is a signed copy of this xkcd strip: http://www.xkcd.com/386/